[ms] Speculation dan Gambling Issues in Contra Trading

Abstract

Contra trading is a stock transaction that can be done within a fixed period without any capital either in the form of cash or share certificates. The shares are payable on T + 3, which is ‘transaction day’ plus three working days. The buyer can sell the share during that period and will gain profits if the stock price rises as expected. But if prices fall, the buyer will have to pay counter losses. However, this transaction is also seen as having sharia issues such as speculation and gambling as market players only take advantage of the T+3 settlement period to immediately buy and sell the same shares as the profit. Hence, contra trading technique requires sharia investigation because the elements of gambling and speculation are prohibited in Islam. Speculation and gambling issues are clearly happen in contra trading when market players seem to have no intention of joining company’s investment. In fact, they are only expecting to gain some profit from stock price movements alone. This study uses qualitative method by taking document analysis approach. The findings show that the issue of gambling and speculation in contra trading is contrary to Islamic financial transaction because the likelihood that market participants will incur huge losses is high. This activity makes market participants depend entirely on fate and involves high risk and zero-sum game elements leading up to false property acquisition.